Helix mixer operator gets 3 years in prison for money laundering

Larry Harmon, who was arrested in 2020 for helping criminals launder money through the Helix cryptocurrency mixer, has been sentenced to three years in prison. The sentence was a show of leniency due to his assistance in the Bitcoin Fog mixer case, District of Columbia District Court Judge Beryl Howell said.

‘Staggering’ crimes, deep remorse

Harmon faced a sentence of up to 20 years on the charges against him. The government had recommended a sentence of 75 months on Nov. 11. Harmon was fined $60 million by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2020.

Harmon helped prosecutors in the case against Bitcoin Fog operator Roman Sterlingov, who was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on Nov. 8. Harmon expressed remorse at his sentencing. He had also shut down Helix two years before his arrest, the judge noted while passing sentence on him. “He turned himself around before he was arrested in this case,” she said.

Harmon was also ordered to forfeit $311,145,854 in cash and “seized cryptocurrencies, real estate, and monetary assets valued at over $400 million.”

Harmon was accused of moving more than 350,000 BTC (BTC) through Helix. The value of the crypto was estimated at “more than $300 million” at the time. Prosecutor Alden Pelker called the scale of Harmon’s crimes “staggering.” She said:

“He brought search engine optimization to local cocaine distributors.”

Harmon was arrested in February 2020 and pleaded guilty in August the following year. He ran the darknet Helix crypto mixer between 2014 and 2017 and laundered more than 350,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in that time. Helix worked in conjunction with the Grams darknet search engine, which Harmon also ran. According to a Department of Justice statement:

“Harmon worked to ensure Grams and Helix connected to or otherwise supported all of the major darknet markets at the time. Harmon developed an Application Program Interface (API) to allow darknet markets to integrate Helix directly into their bitcoin withdrawal systems.” 

Harmon first argued in court that Bitcoin was not money, so he could not be charged with money laundering.

Related: Bad blockchain forensics convict the user of a Bitcoin mixer — as its operator

Larry’s bad brother Gary

The Internal Revenue Service — Criminal Investigation office took possession of Harmon’s hard wallets after his arrest. Harmon’s younger brother Gary Harmon later used Larry Harmon’s passwords to transfer 712 BTC (worth more than $5 million at the time) from those wallets to his own.

Gary Harmon was arrested in July 2021. He was ordered to surrender $20 million in cryptocurrency and served four years in prison for wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

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